Bristol City's goalkeeping department has been left in a relatively unknown predicament heading into the summer and next season.
Max O'Leary has cemented his position as the club's No1 and having agreed a new contract in February until the summer of 2026, his task moving forward is relatively plain and simple - hold onto the shirt. Given Dan Bentley's departure in January and Nikita Haikin's short spell as a City player, there is a lack of seniority among the stoppers to challenge his position at the moment.
It's an area that is likely to be looked at ahead of the new campaign when Nigel Pearson and his staff cast an eye on their options during pre-season. Academy product Harvey Wiles-Richards has taken the role of second choice following Haikin's departure towards the end of March, and signed a one-year extension in March.
However, the preference would assumingly be to send the 20-year-old out on loan to gain his first taste of Football League experience after a brief spell with Gloucester City last season, before he is handed his Robins debut.
Stefan Bajic, 21, will return from his time on loan with Valenciennes at the end of the season hoping to compete for the shirt. Initially signed last summer to do just that, only for a wrist injury to delay his impact and cause Pearson to retain O'Leary pushing Bajic to third-choice, the young Frenchman managed just one appearance which came in the Carabao Cup defeat to Lincoln City in November.
After securing his loan move to the Ligue 2 side in January, manager Nigel Pearson confirmed the France Under-21 goalkeeper had been "disappointed" with his lack of first-team opportunities having also had to deal with a change of countries, culture and learning a new language.
He also added: "In an ideal world, we talked about loaning him to a team in England to start with but this opportunity came along and we just felt for football reasons and for his well-being to get back to playing in a familiar environment that would be a good outcome for him.”
Bajic was thrown straight into action with his new side upon his arrival, making his full debut nine against Metz nine days after his deal was confirmed. Since then, he's played 11 times in the league but failed to feature in the squad for their previous two matches with the team sitting in 15th.
We caught up with Valenciennes journalist Julien Dufurier, who works for French daily La Voix du Nord, to find out why and get his lowdown on Bajic's loan move so far...
How would you sum up Stefan Bajic's loan?
He was quite good at the beginning and was very impressive for his first game vs Metz in January but after it has been more difficult. Valenciennes has had a very bad time since the New Year with one victory and Bajic has conceded 23 goals in 11 games.
He had a lot of work to do in goal and made some good saves but he has not been decisive enough. His strength has been staying on his line but his weaknesses have been conceding lots of goals from distance while he needs to improve with the ball at his feet.
Why hasn't he featured in the previous two matches?
He has conceded too many goals and hasn’t been decisive enough. The ex-coach Nicolas Rabuel was thinking of dropping him before he was fired two weeks ago. When the results are bad the coach and then the goalkeeper are the first in danger.
It is not unfair because Bajic was expected to be at a better level. The new coach was the former U21 coach in Valenciennes and decided to take the goalkeeper (Lassana Sy, who's started the last two matches) from his team. For the moment, it’s going well, and the Sy has kept consecutive clean sheets. It means Bajic didn't make the squad because he is now the third-choice stopper.
Any word on his future in France?
There's talk for next season because Valenciennes has no money to buy him and has no good reason to make the deal. Also, Bajic has always been told he will be here for just six months and nothing more.
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